Movie news: Philip headed to Panem? ‘Lone Ranger’ spending too much wampum? All that and more ….

Is Philip Seymour Hoffman about to sign up to play Catching Fire‘s Head Gamemaker Plutarch Heavensbee? More importantly, can the oft-disheviled actor clean up nice enough to play an appearance-obsessed Capitol resident?

The Lone Ranger, once nearly left for dead in the middle of the desert because of ballooning budget costs, is said to be up to $250 million again. I guess it’s tough to argue when the Gore Verbinski/Johnny DeppPirates saga brought in more than $3.7 billion. Still, what exactly is costing so much?

Zombies, ya just can’t trust ’em. The adaptation of Max Brooks’ (Mel’s son) zombiepocalypse novel World War Z was supposed to come out this December. That got bumped to June 2013 due to multiple production delays, including a raid of the Hungarian set by state police who confiscated 85 unauthorized “prop” guns. Add in rumors of director Marc Forster losing control of the movie and the Brad Pitt starrer was already firmly in the “troubled” category. Now comes word that Lost co-creator Damon Lindelof has been brought into the fold to rewrite parts of the script, especially the ending. Which isn’t too unusual …. for a film that didn’t already finish shooting months ago. Reshoots are coming up in September and October. Back to Budapest!

CJ Lais

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